1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a set of electronic apparatuses including a first electronic apparatus for portable use with a recording medium for storing contents information, such as a CD (Compact Disc), an MD (Mini Disc), a DVD, a hard disk, a memory stick, a memory card or the like, and a second electronic apparatus disposed separately from the first electronic apparatus, such as an on-vehicle player, a stationary player etc., or for the portable use. The present invention further relates to the first and second electronic apparatuses for forming together the set of electronic apparatuses. The present invention further relates to a computer program product for serving a computer as a controlling device for the first or second electronic apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are a portable CD player, a portable MD player, a portable DVD player and the like, allowing listening to or watching contents information such as audio information, video information or the like in the open air or other situations. In a situation that the user enjoying contents information in the open air with such a kind of portable player gets into a car on which the on-vehicle player is mounted or moves into a house in which the stationary player is disposed, the reproduction of the contents information is generally in the middle of listening or watching.
If the user desires to continue listening to or watching the contents information in mid course of the reproduction, the user has to take the recording medium such as a CD, an MD or a DVD out of the portable player to then load it into the on-vehicle player or the stationary player, after entering the car or the house. Then the user has to search for the point or the neighboring area, at which the contents information was lastly listened to or watched, through a fast-forwarding function or a chapter searching function. Furthermore, the user performs an operation to resume or start reproducing the contents information approximately from the searched point.
Alternatively, the user may attach a FM transmitter, which is typically inserted into the earphone jack instead of an earphone, to the portable player. Alternatively, the user may switch the portable player into a FM transmitting mode, if the player is a type included in the FM transmitter. Thereby, the reproduction output from the portable player is transmitted in the FM wave. Moreover, the user performs tuning the on-vehicle player or the stationary player to a certain FM frequency corresponding to the transmission from the FM transmitter, before or after setting the on-vehicle player or the stationary player into a FM receiving mode. Thereby, the reproduction in the on-vehicle or stationary player is resumed or started approximately from the point at which the reproduction of the contents information was lastly reproduced.
However, the combination of the portable player and the on-vehicle or stationary player involving taking out and loading the recording medium forces the great effort or the troublesome manipulation on the user. Particularly, searching for the contents information in mid course of reproduction is further complicated in the case of the CD, the MD or the DVD, i.e. random access type recording media, than the case of cassette tapes.
On the other hand, with regard to the combination of the portable player and the on-vehicle or stationary player involving switching the audio output via the FM transmitter set forth above, searching for the contents information in mid course of the reproduction is also complicated, because of the mounting of the FM transmitter, or the mode setting or the frequency tuning of the on-vehicle or stationary player.